Grapevine Magazine and its sister website GrapevineLIVE.co.uk have been promoting LIVE entertainment in East Anglia for over 25 years through our trusted free listings service. Register online today and add your events.

Boxford’s biggest export…

Woo hoo! Latitude Festival is around the corner, and thanks to the generosity of Huw Stephens we shall once again be there – handpicking three acts to perform on the Lake Stage. We love to be involved, and getting to phone three of the acts we’ve been championing and ask them to represent us is always a highlight of the year.

It’s always a tough decision, but I think this year’s picks are a good reflection of the type of music that is being made around the county. I also think that the three artists can be viewed as being the flag bearers for their respective genres.

First up are Love Nor Money, who performed one of the greatest live sets we’ve hosted, at the Anchor in Woodbridge last year. They’ve been described as being “like Haim refurbished by The Prodigy”, and I think that’s fair enough. They’re certainly more aligned with the electronica of the latter, but they also have the indie pop sensibilities that made the former successfully straddle the 6 Music and Radio One playlists.

We only made our mind up about our second act once we’d seen him perform for us at the John Peel Centre in April. Ryan Gallant has been a regular on the radio show for a couple of years – first as a producer for the likes of Richard Osborne, then as a solo artist under the Muckaniks moniker, and even his house alter ego NVU.

As Muckaniks, Ryan has become a focal point for the incredibly exciting Ipswich hip hop scene – seemingly going door to door of the whole town, giving beats away to anyone interested. For the John Peel Centre gig we asked him to pull together some of these artists, and he delivered with style. Rye Shabby, Indigo Frequencies, Martell (and later Superglu) all joined him on stage to help showcase his depth of output.

He started working on his Latitude show the day after accepting the invite, so I think it should be something special.

Our trio is concluded by Mr Chris Athorne, who came to our attention as the frontman of Boxford’s biggest export since Coppella apple juice…This Boy Wonders. The band represented us at Reading and Leeds in 2011 but sadly split a while later. Chris now spends his time hopping between Boxford and Brighton, performing solo as Oktoba. His calming and sublime brand of folk will provide the ideal soundtrack for a lazy Sunday lunchtime.

So yeah, it should be a fun weekend. At the time of writing there are only three other local acts to look out for on the bill. Barns Courtney will be performing what is actually a very rare show in his home county. He’s largely based in London nowadays and has also been touring here there and everywhere, playing at SXSW this year as part of a US tour.

Drones Club will be well worth a watch on the Saturday of Latitude. Their first show in Suffolk at Pump and Grind earlier this year was a masterclass in creating excitement and anticipation, and thankfully they went on to live up to the heightened expectation.

And then… thankfully, Dingus Khan are allowed back at Henham Park and have been given prime billing by Keith Allen. They remain one of the best bands in the country, and possibly THE best live band.

I would say the fact that they and Superglu aren’t on the billing of every major festival is a damning indictment of the music industry, but I think I’ve covered that before.

He loves new music and DJs/co-runs the Uprock night in the town, hosting acts such as Mumford & Sons, Jamie T and Golden Silvers alongside up and coming local bands such as Ed Sheeran, DELS, The Cheek and The Cads.

"I try to set the bar really high for the Introducing show - if I wouldn't consider playing it when DJing, why play it on the radio?